His Case for Equal Justice

During his six years as governor of Texas, George W. Bush signed death warrants for 152 convicts and granted clemency once. His record -- along with that of the Texas justice system -- long has been decried by death penalty opponents and human rights groups.

In his State of the Union message Wednesday, President Bush took a modest step toward acknowledging criticism that the legal process in some death penalty cases could be flawed and that some defendants -- many of them minorities -- lacked adequate legal representation.

“Because one of the main sources of our national unity is our belief in equal justice, we need to make sure Americans of all races and backgrounds have confidence in the system that provides justice,” Bush said.

He proposed a $50-million, three-year program to help train defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges in state capital cases in the proper application of laws. The goal, according to a White House fact sheet, is to “help ensure the competence and effectiveness of all participants connected with the trial of state capital cases.”

But $50 million is a small sum in federal budget terms. Although Bush said he would seek $20 million of that money in the fiscal 2006 budget, many states may get only a few hundred thousand dollars. The death penalty is legal in 38 of the 50 states.

Bush also called for full funding of his DNA initiative, a $1-billion plan announced two years ago and intended to eliminate a huge backlog of unprocessed DNA evidence in criminal cases.

As governor of Texas, Bush followed a law-and-order program, signing legislation that placed curbs on death penalty appeals, even though some defendants in the state were represented by incompetent lawyers.